Buying and selling merchandise and services via the Internet has become more widely accepted and more secure in recent years. Aside from established merchants and commercial retailers, individuals have found a marketplace online for shopping or peddling their new or used merchandise as well as seeking or offering a variety of services. Many employers seeking employees and those seeking employment have turned to the Internet for opportunities. Generally speaking, this marketplace can be referred to as an online classifieds listing and many websites specializing in this type of commerce currently exist. Most notably, EBay and Craig's List are two of the more popular sites. However, national sites such as EBay lack the level of personalization that may be more closely associated with some more parochial sites such as Craig's List. For example, EBay has traditionally focused on the ability to hold auctions across the country while Craig's List has currently adopted a message board type of framework that has a more local feel, but limits users to search only a particular metropolitan area. On either site, users are left wanting more. The national site can be too large-scale and intimidating for new or infrequent users. On the contrary, the more local based site may seem too restricted in terms of the scope and ability to attract buyers and sellers.
In addition to these concerns, many of the current sites tend to either charge relatively high transaction fees or have difficulties in maintaining or increasing traffic to their sites due to other restrictions or limitations associated therewith. High fees make it less desirable for infrequent sellers to take advantage of the online service and frequent sellers worry about decreasing traffic to the site due to the higher prices needed to cover the ever-increasing transaction fees.